Iowa 'city kids' confront life and death on the farm

Champion hog caller Kyle Barton of Clive, Iowa, shows off his swine serenade and shares his love of competing in all sorts of events at the Iowa State Fair. Listen for yourself in the video above.

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Zoie Wagner, a senior from Des Moines Roosevelt High School, carries a feeder pig from a trailer to its new pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. (Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)Buy Photo

Squeals and screams erupt as Ibby Rodgers and Zoie Wagner carry their new pigs into a barn on Des Moines' south side.

The feeder pigs, each roughly the size of a corgi, are the latest arrivals at the Des Moines Public Schools' teaching farm.

Over the next few months, two students from Central Campus' animal science classes will feed and water the pigs — and muck out their stalls — until the animals reach upwards of 250 pounds.

After a brief stop at the county fair, the pigs will be sold to slaughter.

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Ibby Rodgers, a senior at Roosevelt High School, holds a chicken on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. Students in the ag program have been raising livestock such as chickens, sheep, goats and pigs. (Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

It's a process that plays out each summer in FFA and 4-H program across Iowa, but it's rare in Des Moines.

These "city kids" don't live on a farm and they'd never raised livestock before enrolling in the class.

For many Des Moines students, the class is their first real experience with the cycle of life and death.

"It is so easy to see a pork chop in the meat counter," said Will Fett, chair the Iowa Council on Agricultural Education. "But (it's harder) to really understand the care the farmers take to put into raising the animal that will ultimately become that pork chop."

'We all eat ... we all purchase food'

The disconnect between farm and food is echoed in a story teacher Kevin Anderson recounts about one student's introduction to his animal science class.

Iowa leads the U.S. in pork production, marketing about 45 to 50 million pigs a year. It's inventory of pigs and hogs was 21.8 million in 2017. That's more than seven times the number of people in Iowa.

In 2017, the state also was the leading producer of corn (2.61 billion bushels) and eggs (16 billion) and second in soybeans (562 million bushels).

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Ibby Rodgers, a senior from Des Moines Roosevelt High School, carries a feeder pig from a trailer to its new pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Zoie Wagner, a senior from Des Moines Roosevelt High School, carries a feeder pig from a trailer to its new pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Ibby Rodgers, left, and Zoie Wagner take photos of their new feeder pigs from inside the pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. The students of the ag program will raise the pigs and show them at the Iowa State Fair. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Ibby Rodgers, a senior from Des Moines Roosevelt High School, carries a feeder pig to its pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Zoie Wagner, a senior from Des Moines Roosevelt High School, carries a feeder pig from a trailer to its new pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Young feeder pigs dine on grain feed inside their new pen at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. The four pigs will be raised by high school students and shown at the Iowa State Fair. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

Ibby Rodgers, a senior at Roosevelt High School, holds a chicken on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. Students in the ag program have been raising livestock such as chickens, sheep, goats and pigs. Bryon Houlgrave/The Register

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Last year, more than 7,100 swine raised through Iowa FFA programs were shown at county fairs and the Iowa State Fair, said Amy Powell, who works with youth at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

The Roosevelt teens know their peers in rural Iowa might have more experience, but they've been through this before.

This spring, their Central Campus classes raised 23 pigs that were later sold to the slaughter house. Hy-Vee Inc. purchased the meat from 22 of the animals and sold it at some of the company's Des Moines stores.

The other pig was donated to the Des Moines Area Religious Council food pantry.

Hy-Vee employees used the marketing information the class developed to create a sign advertising the selection of "local pork" raised by Des Moines students.

Des Moines students at Central Campus raised 22 pigs that were sold at Hy-Vee, and one donated to the DMARC Food Pantry.(Photo: Kevin Anderson / Special to the Register)

There were chops, pork roast and country-style ribs. It sold faster than the class imagined.

"It tasted good is what I heard," Rodgers said, although neither she nor Wagner purchased any of the meat. "It's kind of sad to think about."

'It's the cycle of life'

The Des Moines teenagers know they're not supposed to get attached to the animals.

Countless Iowa FFA and 4-H students can relate.

ISU Extension's Powell remembers the stream of tears that came when the first lamb she raised was sold to market.

"Ultimately, we have to feed the world," she said. "It sounds really harsh when I verbalize it, but it's the cycle of life."

Growing up on a dairy farm, Iowa FFA Executive Secretary Scott Johnson said he was immersed in the birth, death, sickness, injury and health of animals.

It taught him invaluable lessons, he said.

"Life is not material," he said, and producing livestock "certainly put that into context at an early age."

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Ibby Rodgers, left, and Zoie Wagner take photos of their new feeder pigs from inside the pen on Tuesday, March 25, 2018, at the Des Moines Public Schools agricultural building in Des Moines. The students of the ag program will raise the pigs and show them at the Iowa State Fair.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

Back at the Des Moines Public Schools farm late last month, Rodgers and Wagner can already feel the excitement as the new pigs arrive.

They snap pictures with them and give them names: Danny, James, Franco and Dave — the last name in honor of Farmer Dave, who sold the animals to the school.

Wagner remembers how much she enjoyed it last spring when they'd let the pigs out to run up and down the barn aisle.

"They'd come up to you and act like dogs," she said.

And that's exactly what the four feeder pigs are doing now, stretching their legs and playing in the straw.